Headlight-lens.



A. M. EORIEBR.` Hummm Lens. Armenien man ac zo. 1917.

WA'. I II l '.1 @i V. 'l I lo, .d I- ,al v l "lli Swanton forger',

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UNITED sTATns PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT E. EORGER, OF NEW MARTINSVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA. y

HEADLIGHT-LENS.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, ALBERT H.' FORGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Martinsville, in the county of l/Vetzel and State of vWest Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in I ,3 Headlight-Lenses, of which the following is acter, having means whereby a diffused or. non-glaring light is produced near or 1nv proximity to the automobile, and shafts of' light arev properly bent downwardly and thrown upon the road bed, at a suitable distance from the automobile', without producing shafts of light which are bent upwardly, which would shine in 'the eyes of a pedestrian and the like, thus producing a blinding eiect.

A further object of the invention is to provide a lens of the above mentioned character L having substantially horizontally arranged 1 S5 prisms, provided with inclined and approxi- N mately horizontal faces, the inclined faces serving tobend the shafts of light downwardly and the approximately horizontal facesl being frosted, painted, or otherwise rendered translucent or opaque.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent during the course of the following description. In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same,

Figure l is a central vertical sectional view through a lens embodying the invention, showing the same in use, 4

F ig. 2 is an inner side elevation of the same,

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken online 3-3 of Fig. 2, and, Fig. e is an enlarged vertical fragmentary Specification of Letters Patent.

. passing Patented Dec. 25, 1917.,

Application led October 20', 1917. Serial No. 197,579.

In the drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustration is shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, the numeral 5 designates a lens of suitable size to lit in the casing of a headlight of an automobile, while the lens may be made in any suitable size. This lens is preferably formed of transparent glass. Arranged behind the lens 5 isa parabolicreflector 5 with an electric lamp or bulb 6', disposed therein, as shown.

Upon its inner or rear f ace, the lens is preferably provided with an annular flange 6, and all, or practically all, of the light from the lamp 6 passes through that portion of the lens arranged within the flange 6. The-upper portion or half of the lens is provided with spaced vertical ribs 7, cast upon the inner or rear face thereof. As more clearly shown in Fig. 3, the ribs 7 have their surfaces curved in cross-section, and the spaces 8 between the ribs a're also curved in cross-section., Particular attention is called to the fact that these ribs 7 are not prisms nor do they function as prisms in 4bending the shafts of light horizontally in any deii nite direction or directions, but these ribs functlon to remove the glare from the light of the lens, thus producing a light which is fused and somewhat dimmed. y

The lower portion or half of the lens 6A is provided with substantially horizontal prisms 8', preferably molded upon the in- 90 ner or rear face thereof. These prisms have upper inclined faces 9, and lower approximately horizontal faces l0. The inclined faces 9 are transparent and function to bend the shafts of light downwardly, causing the "L2 sameto strike the road bed, at a suitable distance in advance of the automobile, thus providing suflicient light for fast driving and the like. rlhese downwardly bent rays of light cannot shine in the faces of pedes- 10o i trians and the like and hence the usual blinding effect is not produced.

As is well known, these lenses are usually employed in connection with parabolic reflectors, and shafts of light R and L are produced, see Figs. 1 and 4. The shaft R t passes through the inclined transparent face 9 and is bent downwardly and thrown upon the road bed, as hereinabove stated, while the shaftsL pass through the lower or horithrough the upper portion'or half 8,5y

zontal face 10 and would be bent upwardly. This upward bending of the shafts L would throw the light in the eyes of pedestrians, and this is believed to be the reason why attempts heretofore made to bend the shafts of light downwardly have not proven wholly satisfactory, since all of the shafts of light were not bent downwardly. The rays L strike the face 16 at an angle of 40 or more. To overcome this disadvantage, I render the horizontal faces translucent or opaque, which may be accomplished by having these faces frosted or painted with translucent or opaque paint. I prefer to have faces 10 frosted, as the same provides a granular surface, and is also cheaper. VIn certain of the claims it will be stated that the faces 10 are treated or provided with light obstructing means, and this expression is intended to cover translucent or opaque means applied to such faces. v

As shown in Fig. 2, the horizontal prisms 8 and the vertical ribs 9 preferably meet at a horizontal line passing through the center of the source of light 6', and the uppermost horizontal prism 8 has portions 10', projecting between the ribs.

In use, the shafts of light passing through the upper or vertically corrugated portion of the lens are diffused and the blinding effect removed therefrom. This provides a somewhat dimmed light at or near the automobile. The shafts of light passing through the inclined faces 9 of the prisms 8 are bent downwardly and thrown upon the road bed at a suitable distance from the automobile, whilethe shafts'of light which strike the substantially horizontal faces l0, are obstructed or so dimmed that they cannot produce a blinding effect.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herewith shown and described is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and that various changes in the shape,

size, and arrangement of partsmay be re* sorted to without departing from thecspirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claims.

.Having thus described my invention, I claim:

l. A lens having approximately horizontal prisms formed thereon, said prisms having upper angularly arranged transparent light bending faces and lower approximately horizontal faces which are provided with light obstructing means. 2. A lens having approximately horizontal prisms formed thereon, said prisms having upper angularly arranged transparent light bending faces and lower approximately horizontal translucent faces.

3. A lens having its upper portion provided with light dimming means, and its vlower portion provided with substantially horizontal prisms, saidv prisms comprising upper inclined faces which are transparent and lower faces having means to render them light obstructing.,

4. A lens having its upper portion provided with light diffusing means, and its lower portion provided with substantially horizontal prisms, said prisms comprising upper transparent inclined faces and lower substantially horizontal faces which are rendered light obstructing.

5. A lens having itsI upper portion provided with` spaced substantially vertical ribs, and its lower portion provided with substantially horizontal prisms, said prisms having upper angularly arranged transpar-` ent faces, and lower substantially horizontal faces which are rendered light obstructing.

In testimony whereof I affix my signatur in presence of two witnesses.

ALBERT H. FORGER.

Witnesses J. F. SMITH, W. H. Tmmx. 

